The funeral ceremony as a factor of Jewish traditions conservation (by Tomsk data of the second part of the 19th - early 20th centuries)

There are some difficulties to conserve national traditions if peoples live out the homeland. The illustrative example of this situation is the Jews' history whose communities are in a large territory under different geopolitical and cultural conditions. History of the Jewish communities has been studied by a lot of various researchers for a long time. However, some aspects of Tomsk Jewish community history that started in spite of the Russian law of the 19th century require an additional study. The funeral ceremony of Tomsk Jewish community is researched in the paper. The features of this ceremony could be studied as one of the factors of the traditions and ethic mentality conservation. The exact date of Tomsk Jewish cemetery construction is unknown, but funeral places had been here for a long time before the Jewish community institutions appeared. And the funeral ritual was not carefully followed. After Jewish community institutions appeared some elements of the funeral ritual were followed in Tomsk. Tomsk Jewish funerary society was established simultaneously with the first religious institutions in the middle of the 19th century. Its members were responsible for the cemetery and funeral ceremony. The funerary society included Jews, who knew Jewish funeral traditions, and general laborers. The first step of the funeral was ablution with warm water by a special laborer. The Jewish funeral custom called "kria" was not followed in Tomsk because of the far distance of this region from religious centers. After ablution, members of the society came to the second step; they enrobed a corpse with special clothes. Then after a pray, the funerary society started a funeral procession. In Tomsk a corpse was taken to the cemetery by horse and it was brought to the grave by hands. When the funeral procession came to the cemetery, one of the members of the society asked for forgiveness and after a corpse was inhumed he announced divorcement because of the death. Then a seven-day mourning started. Funds of the funerary society were formed due to payments for graves and voluntary donations when a high-income Jew died. Despite the fact that the funerary society service was honorary, members of Tomsk funerary society often abused their responsibilities. This situation was common for the Russian Empire. As a result, to avoid abusing, the government issued some statutes for funerary societies in 1867 - 1868. They defined the aim of the funerary society, members, as well as their responsibilities. To sum up, after researching the funeral custom of Tomsk Jewish society in the second part of the 19th century - early 20th century, it could be noted that some elements of the custom were followed only in the middle of the 19th century when Jewish community institutions formed. Besides, due to the far distance of the region from religious centers and a low educational level of Tomsk Jews in religion, as well as the lack of people who knew religious custom in detail, some elements of funeral customs were not followed by Tomsk Jews. However, the desire to burry their relatives according to the Jewish custom can be considered as a factor of traditions conservation.

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